


One End in Sight

by Kisuru



Category: Naruto
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, Ghosts, Love Confessions, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:55:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27172088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kisuru/pseuds/Kisuru
Summary: Sakura and Ino can't find the village they are sent to find. Even odder, they are followed in the forest by something with strange motives. Little do they realize it will end up in a confession of feelings after all is said and done.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Yamanaka Ino
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27
Collections: Shipoween 2020 - The Halloween Ship Exchange!





	One End in Sight

Rolling mist threaded and mingled in between the tall tree branches above their heads. Wind blew, buffeting them against the silhouette of white briskly enveloping the area, causing the high branches to stir and creak.  
  
“This place is spooky,” Ino said, eyes narrowed towards the sky. She crossed her arms as a chill urged goosebumps up and down her arms. Even the fog settling in obscured the clouds. “Did you find the next city on the map yet?”  
  
Sakura’s feet shifted on the branch. She titled the map in her hands, back and forth, confusion written on her face. “It should be here. It should be in this spot.”  
  
“Here? You’re reading it wrong. Let me see it.” Ino held out her hand for the piece of paper, sighing.  
  
Sakura shrugged. She pointed to a square on the map. She circled her finger, showing off the speck trapped between a row of forest lines. “I’m positive.”  
  
“Seriously?” Ino was dumbfounded. She gestured to the surrounding trees. “There’s nothing here except bugs and trees! Whoever wrote this map… Later, I’ll give them a piece of my mind.” She huffed and kicked the twig of a branch under her own foot. “That’s that. What are we supposed to do now?”  
  
“We should look around for clues,” Sakura said, folding up the map and sliding it back into the pouch at her waist. “It’s all we can do.”  
  
Sakura was absolutely sure the map wasn’t lying to her. For two hours straight they had wandered in the forest. And for what? To be lost? She calculated everything!  
  
“Well, you’re stuck with me until we get out of here,” Sakura said. She eyed Ino. A smirk turned her lips.  
  
Ino leaped from the branch she stood on. Agile and proud, she landed on the branch of the next tree over. “Who wants to be stuck with you in a dead-still forest with no direction in sight?”  
  
Sakura and Ino faced away from each other. Perhaps it was the cold, or exertion from running for hours, but each of their faces was dusted a sheen of red.  
  
“As if anyone would want that, Billboard Brow,” Ino murmured. She tossed her head, golden hair flying, her face growing hotter despite her untold duty to “scout” the opposite direction. She briefly glanced over her shoulder towards Sakura.  
  
Something – in the briefest of moments, beyond her quick thoughts – moved in the fog several trees away.  
  
The wind whistled.  
  
“Did… did you hear something?” Sakura asked. The faintest of crunches echoed in her ears. Now, she was alert and prepared, her eyes moving back and forth from tree to tree to find anything out of the ordinary  
  
“That’s my line,” Ino said. She pointed to the exact spot she swore the shadow appeared. “Didn’t you see something? For a minute, I thought I saw a… light…”  
  
Color drained from each of their expressions. Ino and Sakura exchanged glances, their heartbeats racing in sync. Once nothing could be sensed, they frowned. The need to protect each other at all costs danced in their eyes and flashed in their wary expressions.  
  
With that, they fled.  
  
The dry rustle of leaves crinkling and snapping followed in their wake. A constant shower of orange and yellow leaves fluttered in all directions with each passing beat. A rabble of leaves fell in Ino and Sakura’s path as the trees released them from the shackle of jeering branches, obscuring Sakura and Ino’s view from behind them  
  
Completely surrounded.  
  
Ino slashed her tanto at the leaves. A small chunk was chopped off, flying away.  
  
Ino and Sakura bumped back to back together. Through the coarse flak jacket, even the warmth radiating from their bodies was surprisingly comforting.  
  
Ino wondered if she could stay that way for a while.  
  
Ino’s hair brushed the cool skin of Sakura’s exposed neck. Delight shivered up Sakura’s spine, and she was worried that, if she stayed there too long, she would admit her joy.  
  
“Now what?” Ino panted.  
  
“We force our way out!” Sakura bunched up her sleeve over her forearm.  
  
Sakura raised her fist. The paper-thin leaves crumbled into dust under the rain of punches, a tunnel was forced through the swirl.  
  
Ino was momentarily stunned. A halo of red exploded under her strength into power With each punch and punch and punch, the leaves were depleted one by one.  
  
Waking herself back up from the onslaught, Ino grabbed Sakura’s hand in a moment of rest. She pulled her away from the fray, and they continued to run again.  
  
Everywhere on Sakura’s hand from her palm and knuckles spread with heat. Ino’s fingers tingled with the reminder she touched her and felt the residue of her focus, the vibrations of chakra so pronounced.  
  
The forest was quiet. The leaves had disappeared into the darkness. Deep in her instinct, Ino had a suspicion, but she didn’t know what it exactly was.  
  
Something caught her eye.  
  
Ino hurtled a kunai behind her. It disappeared into the darkness of the forest’s trees, but the loss of knife was a worthy sacrifice. Even with her sensing abilities, she still couldn’t pinpoint the location of the person following them  
  
“You can’t, either?” Sakura asked, hopeful even though the answer was obvious.  
  
“Only as much as you know,” Ino pointed out. “Whoever it is, why are you bothering! It’s just us! Do you want to keep us here together like this for--”  
  
“Please don’t say forever,” Sakura said. Her heart skipped a beat regardless. What would it be like to be with Ino forever, alone but happy, for all their days?  
  
Ino grunted. She twined a piece of hair in between her fingers, perplexed. Had she meant forever? “What’s so bad about that anyway, being together in a place like this… Can’t you take things as a compliment?”  
  
“Who says I don’t take things as a compliment?” Sakura shot back. “Who says I didn’t want to?”  
  
“Well, fine!” Ino continued, barely listening to her She leaned, peering at her closely. “If you don’t want to be with me… Sounds your problem. Hmph. Who wants to be here with you forever? I didn’t say that, did I?”  
  
“Are you saying I wouldn’t be the best person to spend the rest of your life with?” Sakura stomped her foot.  
  
“I’m saying, if I have to be stuck here – no, if we were anywhere – you would be the only choice!” Ino said.  
  
Hot breath collided, and fiery-ice stares refused to back down. The gravity of what they said barely scratched the surface of their conscious; they didn’t budge a single muscle.  
  
In the distance, a bone-chilling, piercing laughter pierced through the fog.  
  
Ino jumped. Her grip tightened on her sword.  
  
Sakura’s head spun. The significance of “only choice” speared through her brain and offset something in her heart. Dizziness took control her thoughts; the eerie, gleeful laugh rang in her ears. The meaning of Ino’s words was pushed aside for the time being.  
  
About a mile passed while their footsteps left dust.  
  
Sakura turned forward. She listened and reached out to to their surroundings. The sound was gone. “I don’t sense anyone following us now. I think we lost them.”  
  
“It can’t be that easy. We really can’t be anywhere near that city… We’re totally out of the loop.”  
  
Ino’s stomach flipped with a foreboding feeling. How was it possible to come and leave so freely? In Sakura’s eyes, Ino spotted a discomfited cloud of worry. Nonetheless, she trusted her decision making and quick-wittiness in times of stress.  
  
Their hunches were correct, if the theory held.  
  
“If they’re not attacking us…” Ino wondered.  
  
“Then why are they making us run around in circles?” Sakura said.  
  
Something was off, but the answer wasn’t quite clear.  
  
White buildings appeared on the horizon. The forest’s trees thinned out in a round bow around the ruins site.  
  
A block of smashed and leaning buildings appeared before them. Dilapidated walls and beams sprawled in large uneven chunks across the landscape.  
  
The wind’s whistling was twice the volume flooding through stone chambers.

“So,” Ino said, unable to remember, “was this on the map? Please say it was.”  
  
Sakura hesitated for a long time. Ino did not look impressed with her reluctance to verify, but she sighed. “I don’t remember this place on the map. Let me check the coordinates.”  
  
Sakura pulled out the so-called map of the area. She placed her finger on it, skimming its contents with equal parts determination and puzzlement, eyebrows furrowing. “No, it’s not here. This is out of our hands. I really don’t know where we are. Uncharted territory.”  
  
“Helpful,” Ino said. The looming dread continued to crawl down her arms.  
  
“Even if this was the village we were sent to, there’s no houses or signs of life at all.” Sakura rolled the map back up and pushed it in her pouch. “Let’s explore.”  
  
“If you say so,” Ino said.  
  
Both kunoichi leaped from the last tree on the forest’s outskirts. The clack of shoes resounded as they landed in a circular clearing between a pile of rubble.  
  
The ruins stretched for as far in the distance as the eye could see. The buildings became taller and less normal with each step, half a roof or a door collapsed as though a monster had taken an unsatisfactory bite out of it.  
  
So engrossed was Sakura in sightseeing that she did a double take when she spotted the creepiest thing yet hanging off a roof.  
  
Ino’s shoulder was clasped with unyielding firmness. She winced. “What is it, Saku – I don’t want to get eaten by hungry spiders!”  
  
The yellow spiderweb wrapped around the rubble above and under its springy fabric like a parasite clinging for comfort. No spiders were near, however.  
  
Sakura’s mouth was drawn into an “o” with how large the web was. “On second thought, let’s leave.”  
  
“That’s the best idea,” Ino agreed happily.  
  
For countless seconds, though, they gripped tightly onto each other. Fear was the initial motivator, but Sakura and Ino refused to part. Finally, they did.  
  
The creepy forest was even less inviting the more they looked at it. Going back in was impossible. From their position, the fog was thick, and the trees were darker.  
  
“Where is that person chasing after us now?” Ino asked herself, returning to the foremost question.  
  
“Could be anywhere.” A worst-case thought rose in Sakura’s mind. “Did whoever it was actually lead us here? But there’s nothing that threatening.”  
  
The mission was uneasy, but it hadn’t been a particularly dangerous situation. Neither of them were sure of how to handle their would-be stalker. Whoever it was hadn’t attacked them; they had simply watched from afar, their aura known, and their barely highlighted in smoke.  
  
Sakura and Ino exchanged a glance. No matter what, they would protect each other. That was a fact.  
  
Sakura and Ino spoke at the same time.  
  
“Hey, um… Ino-chan, I know I’m usually the one who needs you to cheer me up, but it’ll all work out.”  
  
“Let say something, Sakura… it’ll all be alright!”  
  
The air swished and swooshed, whipping their hair in front of them.  
  
An incoming object.  
  
Ino and Sakura parted and dodged. When they caught a glimpse of it, Ino was the first to react. The kunai she had thrown earlier at the mysterious person was embedded in a piece of rock. The rock splintered and shattered in half.  
  
“Why would it even come back?” Sakura asked.  
  
“Are you kidding!” Ino gritted her teeth. She had accepted its loss. Seeing it perfectly fine was another bent straw. “That thing was definitely ready to kill us.” She cupped her hands around her face. “You, come out right now! Stop playing games with us!”  
  
Nothing happened. Ino and Sakura scooted back-to-back, but there was only silence that greeted them.  
  
“Now what should we do!? What if they have more weapons ready to use?”  
  
“Stay calm,” Sakura said. She hadn’t come up with any plan herself. It was a flimsy reassurance, but she wanted to get to the bottom of this as much as Ino did.  
  
“Easy for you to say,” Ino said. She walked towards the kunai. She pulled it out. “Let me see if I can get a reading on this at all.”  
  
Once her skin came in contact with it, the emotions on the kunai were… striking, to say the least. It was a strong feeling of chakra. But the feel wasn’t anything she had felt in her time time reading – the signals were all wrong. Ino couldn’t detect why but the chakra signature was expressive yet lifeless.  
  
“How is it?” Sakura asked.  
  
“It’s strange,” Ino said. She held it in her hands. “I don’t get it. It’s like… like...”  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“It feels like… there’s a deeper meaning in it than even I can comprehend. It’s powerful, but not completely negative.” Ino struggled to put it into words. “It’s like, it’s not… from a living person. It’s not the right flow… I don’t know.”  
  
Her sentence went flat.  
  
More shrapnel of the surrounding area bounced into the air in all directions.  
  
“Since normal means won’t work,” Sakura said. “Then I’ll have to do this!”  
  
Punching downwards with a fist full of chakra, hard, Sakura planted her feet on the ground. She struck out at the flying rock pieces. The ground rumbled as the rubble was thrown into the air like a lighting strike connected; rubble was cracked and reduced to pebbles. Smashed and beaten, the pebbles littered the ground in droves.  
  
The ruins couldn’t be used as a means of attack now.  
  
A crooning shrill of laughter echoed in the dying wind.  
  
Ino shielded her face. She peeked out from in between her fingers, her eyes never able to leave Sakura’s hunched over profile.  
  
Sakura straightened. She rubbed her knuckles, though her skin wasn’t bothered with just that. “I have an idea. Since the kunai gave us a clue. Why don’t you use the Body Mind Switch Technique? See if you can takeover whatever it is, and we can know it’s weak points.”  
  
“It’s decent enough to work, I guess,” Ino said.  
  
But Ino still couldn’t look away. She frowned. What was it? What did she want to do? Sakura’s strength caught her attention tenfold. In that moment, she glowed with excellence and beauty. It wasn’t until she was right next to Sakura that she followed through on the defiant curious impulse.  
  
Ino reached for Sakura’s hair. She gently patted the dust out of her hair, knocking a stray pebble into the heap below them. Soft pink locks of hair wrapped around Ino’s fingers while she patted her hair down.  
  
Sakura didn’t want to know how intense her blush was.  
  
Without another word, they moved to the next stage.  
  
Ino and Sakura ran out of the clearing and into the open. The rubble around them levitated and swirled around in the air. In the sea of chaos, there was a silvery human outline without a concrete figure.  
  
“Hey, you, what you--” Sakura yelled.  
  
Before she finished speaking, the white figured disappeared. It reappeared several feet away and then repeated the same step. Disappear and appear.  
  
“It’s playing games with us.” Ino already had her arms before her and circled them before her face. “Ninja Art: Mind Transfer Jutsu!”  
  
A sign of chakra rippled before her – a meager sign to latch onto. She reached out to the threads of it. Harshly, she was pushed back the moment she tried to slip inside. A hard force, like hands shooting out at her, pushed her soul back.  
  
Sakura, waiting to catch her before she fell, was surprised with Ino flailing around in her arms the moment she crashed into her chest. Ino landed squarely in her arms. Looking up, there was a brief moment their eyes made contact. Ino’s heartbeat sped up and the light sheen of a blush came over Sakura’s face.  
  
“No good?” Sakura guessed, more preoccupied with Ino’s hearty scent.  
  
“I can’t enter,” Ino said. She grit her teeth. Naturally.  
  
“Then, I ran out of ideas...”  
  
“Well, that’s just great!” Ino growled and stamped her foot. She looked up at her. “We did everything we could and they’re still going to mock us? Okay, fine, I’ll say it, I’ll say it! If there really is a ghost after us and they’ve gone to all this trouble… I get it! I have a confession to make.”  
  
“Huh?” Sakura held onto her despite Ino squirming. She was both terrified and amazed in the same breath. “W-What are you talking about all of a sudden?”  
  
“The truth is, the truth is… Isn’t it obvious?” All the scenes leading up to that point went through Ino’s mind, and she understood. The way the fog and dust surrounded them, encaged them… barely touched them... She gulped. “I know a thing or two about this. S-So I.” She closed her eyes. “I swear I’ll stand here and tell you I love you. That’s how much I’m willing to bet that’s what this is all about. I’m right!”  
  
Ino pushed away, her entire body thrumming with pulsing adrenaline. She crossed her arms over her chest. She didn’t listen to the words coming out of her mouth at first, but she was awestruck with how confident she sounded. All the touches, the closeness… It couldn’t be another explanation.  
  
“Y-You… what!” Sakura asked, ready to faint.  
  
“You heard me! I said I would definitely, absolutely, jump into your arms and tell you I love you if there’s really a ghost out here. It’s watching us for this,” Ino told her. “And I did… the first p-part of that… and the second. And, and, and!”  
  
Her feelings for Sakura had been with her for years and blossomed from growth. It was almost insane that a ghost knew how much she had yearned to tell Sakura her feelings from the moment the mission had started; they rarely went on long distance missions together these days. It was a cruel cover up to say such a thing when she had been harboring the thoughts – but she had always been too embarrassed to voice those feelings out loud.  
  
“So you knew what I wanted to say all along,” Ino said to herself. “I didn’t need to read your mind. You read my mind? My head hurts with this.”  
  
Sakura’s forehead throbbed in a budding explosion of emotion waiting to happen. She was joyous, overwhelmed, and battered from such a direct lock-on hit to her heart. “In that case, then…!” She frowned, hoping she would come out and be honest – she didn’t know what she would do if she weren’t telling her the truth. But the way Ino held her head high, honestly telling her such a thing...  
  
“Yeah, right,” Sakura said, shaking her head vigorously. “There’s way a ghost would exist if there were a possibility of… of...” She couldn’t finish her sentence. Somehow, deep down, she knew the truth.  
  
In the flurry of their half-received confession, something tapped both of them on the back.  
  
The hair on the back of Sakura’s neck rose. Ino’s arms flew in front of her and she turned around. In front of her, she saw the silvery bob figure, otherworldly pale face and black lipstick and all, staring at them.  
  
“Uwaahhh! STAY AWAY!”  
  
Ino grabbed Sakura’s hand. She dragged her on instinct, running away into the rubble, her legs carrying her as fast as humanly possible. But they barely got two steps. When all was said and done, she tripped, pulling Sakura with her.  
  
Ino’s land was soft. She landed on top of Sakura. She shifted, packing. Ino couldn’t find purchase anywhere besides the sides of Sakura’s head.  
  
“Um…” Sakura’s short hair was messily draped across the ground. Her brain was empty for a minute, her thoughts racing. The back and her entire back hurt from the fall; pain shot up her back and neck. Her arms tightened around Ino’s slender waist unconsciously, securing her in her hold. Ino’s face was unbearably close to hers.  
  
“This isn’t quite carrying you in my arms,” Sakura said, smile genuine yet smug at the same time. “You got that mixed up with something else, Ino-pig.”  
  
“Oh, shut up,” Ino said. There was no heat in her sneer, though. Her arms trembled and swayed.  
  
“Well, you can’t just say that and I don’t say anything. We both see the ghost. I mean, I can’t, I really, really! I really!” Sakura wasn’t even sure what she was saying anymore. The happiness was too much, but a clear confession was too much ask. “Love you, too!”  
  
Caught in the heat of the moment, Ino didn’t know what to do with herself. When she stared down at Sakura, though, she was lost in thought, completely entrapped her own downfall. Her feelings boiled over the edge.  
  
Ino’s lips crashed down on Sakura’s. Startled, Sakura attempted to move under her, but Ino pressed her down by the shoulders, holding her there to deepen it. She didn’t know what overcame her; she couldn’t hold back the kiss that had waited since childhood.  
  
Sakura relaxed under her weight. Only hesitating until she caught her bearings, she kissed her back, her feelings in utter disarray but also finding footing beyond belief. Both of them forgot about the ghost that was turning away from them.  
  
There was final laugh in the distance. And then, with a final breeze, the apparition disappeared into the halo of afternoon sunlight. As far as the spirit was concerned, her job was at a close.  
  
The heavy fog lifted. In the blink of an eye, the brown wooden houses of a small village could be seen in place of the rubble piles. Sunlight reflected off the cheery little windows.  
  
The ruins were gone.


End file.
